Amazon no longer needs the 20,000 temps because of its deployment of Kiva robots in fulfillment centers, Citi analyst Mark May theorizes. In particular, Kiva robots eliminate workers who pull merchandise from the shelves.

Instead, the robots literally bring the shelves to the workers who pull and pack and the goods for shipment. Quartz claims, Amazon cut the time needed to pull and pack an order from an hour to 15 minutes with robots.

To be fair to Bernie, Amazon would have deployed the robots with or without the $15 wage. In fact, the robots could have made the $15 wage possible by reducing the size of the labor force. Amazon is paying workers more because it has fewer of them thanks to robots.

In addition, Microsoft can offer next generation solutions such as Linux, the blockchain, cryptocurrencies, Ethereum, the internet of things (IoT), sidechains, and memached servers through GitHub. Another lucrative use of GitHub is joint ventures.

For example, Microsoft and Walmart (NYSE: WMT) are entering into a five-year strategic cloud partnership called 4.co. In 4.co engineers from both companies will develop internal apps utilizing Microsoft Azure and migrate Walmart operations the cloud, VentureBeat reports.

The 4.co team can leverage GitHub by using it to hire developers and make money by selling apps through GitHub. Moreover, the 4.co could greatly increase its brainpower and expertise with GitHub developers.

Planned 4.co projects that could leverage GitHub include internal chatbots, food-spoilage tracking, sensors, and improvements to Microsoft’s register-less ordering. The 4.co team will operate out of an office in Austin, Texas.

Thus GitHub is worth the risks for Microsoft. In particular, GitHub greatly increases Microsoft’s R&D capabilities without massive investments in new facilities or people

Obviously, Walmart and not Amazon is the world’s largest and richest retailer. More importantly, Amazon will not approach Walmart’s revenues soon.

Therefore, Walmart can sink money into its online operations; automated stores, and new technology. As a result Walmart will probably be able to keep up with Amazon; and possibly block its entry into some markets.

The moral of the store is do not count Walmart out. The world’s largest retailer has the resources to maintain its dominance for decades to come despite Amazon’s explosive growth.

Mobile payment apps are still a tough sell to America’s consumers and merchants, Kount’s data indicates. The company that can change that paradigm will make a fortune.

That means more two thirds of American retailers or 71% still refuse to accept mobile wallets. Once again it sounds as if Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is losing the payment wars, and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) is not doing very well.

Ocado claims to process 260,000 orders a week with an order accuracy rate of 99% and an on-time delivery rate of 95%. The company claims to reduce costs with a 0.7% rate of product waste, which sounds hard to believe.

What’s truly interesting is that Ocado might be ahead of Amazon in its use of robots to move groceries. Ocado claims to have 1,100 robots at work in its newest Customer Fulfillment Center (CFC3) in Andover, Hampshire. Pictures online show Ocado robots working in refrigerated warehouses and giant freezers.
Those robots can supposedly pick and pack an order of 50 items in just five minutes. That is amazing because the CFC3 is stocked with 50,000 items, and the center itself is the size of three football fields.

Teaming up with high-end grocers like Lidl and Trader Joe’s for Shipt delivery is a smart move for Target. Other logical moves will to add brands like CVS, Walgreens, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Rite Aid, Albertsons, Nordstrom, Aldi, Trader Joes, Safeway, Publix, and Best Buy to the Shipt ecosystem.

More importantly, Target is well positioned to cash in on today’s retail environment and the transition from brick and mortar to delivery. If you want to profit from the growth of grocery delivery, Target is one of your best bets.

The future of delivery will be specialist delivery firms such as Grubhub (NYSE: GRUB) and Instacart that concentrate on one kind of order such as groceries or hot meals. One-size fits all delivery such as that promoted by Uber Rush appears to be a flop.

Other delivery services will take the place of Uber and Lyft, and customer service should not be affected, Blakeman said. Walmart owns the same-day delivery service Parcel and is working with some other delivery services including Deliv and Google Express. Walmart is also working with Postmates and DoorDash, Reuters reported.